Preparations for Barnegat Bay Inlet Dredging Work Underway

New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) officials yesterday announced a project to dredge five State navigation channels in the Barnegat Bay Inlet area in Ocean County.

The work is part of an $8.7 million dollar project to dredge State channels in Forked River and Barnegat Bay.

This portion of the project will include the following channels: Double Creek Mainland, Double Creek Inlet, High Bar Harbor and Barnegat Light Stake.

NJDOT said that the Double Creek Inlet Channel has been closed, and commercial, sailboat and general recreational traffic had been severely limited in some locations since Superstorm Sandy.

The main goal of this project is to ensure renewed safe navigation, and maintain these Barnegat Bay Channels in a state of good repair.

In preparation for the dredging, NJDOT’s contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, LLC, is now working during daylight hours, seven days a week to place pipeline in or near the channels, which will be both submerged and floating.

The pipeline will be used to pump sediment to the Oyster Creek Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) and sand to the Barnegat Borough Beach near the Barnegat Lighthouse Stake Park.

Dredging operations are expected to begin in early-October and continue 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week through the end of December, NJDOT said.